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Wednesday, November 13, 2013

How Tyson Chandler's Injury Impacts the Knicks

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By Kenneth Teape (@teapester725)

The Knicks are about to embark on an all
too familiar stretch of games without a regular from their starting lineup.
This time, once again, it is center Tyson Chandler, who has a non-displaced
fracture of his right fibula. Last season the Knicks were without Chandler for
a stretch of games because of a bulging disk and the “small-ball” lineup was
born with Pablo Prigioni being inserted into the starting lineup alongside
Raymond Felton, Iman Shumpert, Carmelo Anthony and Kenyon Martin. This season
head coach Mike Woodson planned on using a bigger lineup with the acquisition
of Andrea Bargnani from the Toronto Raptors but the small lineup looks like it
is going to be reappearing for the Knicks for the next 4-6 weeks. This is something that could actually
work to the Knicks advantage. Offensively, this is something that could really
blossom.

With Bargnani manning the center position and Anthony playing at the
4, the Knicks offense will be spread wide open. This will enable Bargnani to be
much more aggressive as there will be more room to roam on the court without
Chandler clogging up the middle. We saw this first hand Friday night as the
Knicks exploded on the same Bobcats team who handled them well earlier in the
week. This was because of the work of Bargnani and Anthony in the middle. Both
were extremely aggressive and made a living on the offensive glass, giving the
Knicks multiple possessions and easy scoring opportunities off kick-outs and
lay-ups. The Knicks looked like the Knicks from last season when they were at
their best as the turnovers were kept to a minimum and they shot the lights out
from beyond the arc, going 12 for 26 for 46.2 percent.

Another positive to Bargnani manning the
middle is the fact the opposing center is taken away from the basket. On
Tuesday the Knicks were killed on the glass without Chandler, losing the
rebounding battle 51-33; on Friday it was a different story as the Knicks were
competitive on the glass losing only 41-37.

Common thinking is that the Knicks
will struggle rebounding with Bargnani being paired in the front court with
Anthony, which is true based on career projections, but with Bargnani’s
offensive skill set it should help offset the numbers as the bigger players on
opponent’s teams will be taken away from the basket; this is something that
will be in the spotlight Sunday afternoon when the Knicks take on the Spurs as
it will be interesting to watch how the Spurs handle Bargnani. Will Tim Duncan
be asked to run around the perimeter chasing him around or will the Spurs have
to sit in a zone and hope the Knicks don’t get hot taking jump shots; the short
answer was it really didn’t matter as the Knicks did not come to play and the Spurs
had the game won before halftime. But Bargnani and Anthony both had solid
offensive games even with the disastrous end result as they combined to shoot
10 of 20 from the field for 32 points.

While the offense looks like something
that could now become a strength once again for the Knicks, the defense looks
like it could really slip. With Bargnani as a rim protector things are a lot
less intimidating for opponents attacking the basket than with Chandler back
there. Bargnani has been an albatross on defense throughout his career, but
through one game he looked like a monster as the last line of defense. He
recorded five blocks against the Bobcats Friday and looked decently comfortable
on the perimeter switching against the smaller guards. Ideally the Knicks would
like to put Bargnani in those situations as little as possible but their
defensive scheme is to switch, switch and switch again until you cannot switch
anymore.

Howard Simmons/New York Daily News

With Bargnani on the defensive end and
on the glass it is all about effort. If he can make a concerted effort to stop
his opponent and help in the rebounding department a little it would go a long
way for the Knicks. He was active Friday night and will be worth keeping an eye
on if he can continue that game in and game out until Chandler returns. One
thing that will help Bargnani along is if Kenyon Martin can stay healthy.
Martin is on a strict minutes limit but he has said on multiple occasions that
he is ready for an increased role and more minutes on the court. If Martin is
indeed able to play more it will help the Knicks immensely as he can cover up
for some of the deficiencies that Anthony and Bargnani have on the defensive
end while not clogging up the offense as he does not need the ball.

The offense is something that can really
take off with Chandler sidelined because he is the common denominator in all of
the Knicks struggles offensively. When Anthony and Stoudemire were paired
together with Chandler everyone pointed fingers at them not being able to
co-exist; the real problem is Chandler clogs the paint, something that makes
isolation players such as Anthony and Stoudemire’s lives much more difficult on
offense. This season people saw Bargnani and Anthony on the court and saw it
not working but again it was Chandler who was in the way. Bargnani is
attempting to get comfortable in a new place and was not put in a situation to
succeed while Anthony, being the leader of the team, had to find a way to keep
Bargnani involved while getting his own shots as well. It looked like a recipe
for disaster trying to fit all these pieces together but hopefully now with
Chandler being sidelined Woodson will realize the small-ball lineup is the way
to go and Bargnani may be moved to the second unit to be the vocal point
without any responsibilities other than scoring the basketball, which is what
he does best.